Improving Your Listening Skills For Faster Mandarin Learning

Improving Your Listening Skills For Faster Mandarin Learning

Can’t keep up with your fast-talking Chinese friend? Or unable to comprehend what he’s saying? Well, you need to improve your listening skills.

As you now know, tones are very important in learning Mandarin. And it is crucial to also develop your comprehension skills through effective listening.

Listening is one of the most neglected part of learning, thus resulting in a longer duration of studying Mandarin. While some just need to exert more effort on this part.

But there are ways to improve your listening skills for faster mandarin learning. Here are some tips that will definitely help:

1. Enroll Yourself in a Good Mandarin Class In Singapore

This is the first on my list because it is simply the most effective way to develop your listening and comprehension skills. The guidance of a professional Mandarin trainer will give you a better understanding on what to focus on when listening.

An expert Mandarin trainer also knows which works best for their students due to their vast experience in teaching Mandarin. So, they will definitely steer you in the right direction. That being said, learning the proper techniques and receiving much-needed guidance, you’ll in turn, learn mandarin faster and save more time and money.

2. Gather The Right Listening Materials

A language school may also provide listening and reading materials for you to use, but you can also find a lot of other resources. Practicing at home or whenever possible, is the best thing you can do even if you are already enrolled in a Mandarin course.

But don’t be so hard on yourself. Choose a listening material according to your current Mandarin skill or level. Don’t just pick any advanced Mandarin auido clip or podcast that you wouldn’t be able to keep up. Take it slow. Start from easy level and then move on to a much more challenging material.

3. Practice In The Real World

You won’t have any problem finding someone in Singapore to practice not only your listening skills but also your conversational skills. Try to make as many Chinese friends as you can.

All of us have different intonations, voice and ways and pace of speaking. So, the more Chinese friend to practice with, the better. Here, you can practice your listening skills in real time and you’ll enjoy it more since you’re just chatting with your colleagues.

If you can’t find a Chinese friend (which I doubt), just open up a small talk with a Chinese elder. You’ll be surprised how accommodating they are, but be sure to also learn the basics of Chinese Culture, traditions and etiquettes to help you with the topics you can use to initiate a small chat.

So, there you go. Give importance to your listening capabilities. Find out where you are having a hard time listening and improve on those. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes but you have to recognize these mistakes first before you can improve it. So practice it everyday and discuss everything with your teacher or instructor.

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I am so grateful for what the teachers had done. When I enrolled, I never had any knowledge about the Mandarin Language. As in, I had zero knowledge about it. But since my teacher at Yi Mandarin is really experienced and skilled (not to mention “very patient”), I learned how to speak it comfortably in no time.

I would rate this 3.5 Stars. Overall experience with Yi Mandarin was positive. I felt my Chinese has improved based on the teachings from the lecturer. An area where I see that needs improvement is the lecturer's ability to manage the pace of the course session better. There are several occasions where we felt some of the topics are so rushed due to nearing the end of the class session. I rather receive time spend on quality of learning versus rushing to get the chapter completed.

I attended the conversational mandarin 1 for 1 month and both my teacher and Yi Mandarin made it really enjoyable. The lessons were well planned with helpful materials. Our class were so participative we were always the last to leave. Thank you so much Yi Mandarin for the coffee, the atmosphere and the lessons. Work has been fun with me using my basic mandarin skills!